DNA from airbag leads to charges in L.B. death

By Tracy Manzer, Staff writer

LONG BEACH - No one could say for certain Armando Aguilar was behind the wheel of his pickup truck last summer when the vehicle was involved in a hit-and-run crash that killed one man and injured a second.

And even though Aguilar turned himself in to police three days later (with the help of his attorney), investigators were told there simply wasn't enough evidence to prosecute the case.

All that changed, however, after detectives went back to take a second look at the evidence.

What they found in the impounded truck were skin cells left on the air bag that deployed at the point of impact. After waiting nearly 10 months for test results from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's crime lab, detectives said they learned this month that the DNA cells in the skin samples scraped from the air bag match those on a swab taken from Aguilar's cheek.

"Because the air bag is sealed until the point of impact, it's a pristine surface," explained Sgt. Hans Kohnlein, of the Accident Investigations Detail.

"This is a first for us," he added. "We've never (identified) anyone by DNA before, at least not in this way."

Armed with the scientific analysis, which police received on July 5, the investigators turned to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office for a second review.

On July 12, Deputy District Attorney Kevin Stennis filed a criminal complaint charging Aguilar with vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and felony hit-and-run, Kohnlein said.

Officers were then able to arrest Aguilar once again, picking him up on Thursday night in Long Beach.

"It's been almost a year, but we didn't give up," the sergeant said Friday.

The case first came to light after the LBPD's 911 dispatch center was notified by On Star - a satellite controlled security and tracking system used on many new vehicles. The On Star center called 911 after it received a signal that an air bag had deployed in a vehicle at Martin Luther King Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway around 2:30 a.m. on Aug. 13.

When patrol officers arrived, they found there had been a hit-and-run crash involving three vehicles, Kohnlein said.

Witnesses said a black 2005 Chevrolet Silverado driving east on PCH ran a red light before slamming into a blue 1996 Mazada Protege that was traveling north on MLK.

The pickup kept going and hit a white 1994 Lexus LS400 that had been sitting in a turn lane on PCH before coming to a stop, Kohnlein said.

That is when the driver allegedly jumped out of the Chevy pickup and ran from the scene.

Paramedics treated and transported the driver of the Mazda, who was unconscious when they arrived. He died around 3 a.m. as the result of massive internal injuries, Kohnlein said.

He is identified as Marcos Alberto Aguilar, a 21-year-old Long Beach resident, and is not related to the 36-year-old suspect, police said.

Also hurt was the driver of the Lexus, although he survived, the sergeant said.

The case was turned over to Accident Investigations, where detectives tried to contact the owner of the pickup. On Aug. 16, Aguilar turned himself in to police with the help of his attorney, Kohnlein said.

The 36-year-old Aguilar was booked on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter and hit-and-run. Although he made no statements to police, there was evidence of a recent injury, Kohnlein recalled.

"He had been to the hospital after the crash to have some glass removed from his eye," Kohnlein said.

The case was then presented to the L.A. County district attorney's office. But prosecutors explained to investigators there simply wasn't enough evidence to file the case, Kohnlein said.

That is when investigators returned to the truck to see what else they might find.

Having skin cells on the air bag is significant, Kohnlein explained, because it is one area of the truck that Aguilar would not have had any contact with prior to the deadly crash.

"The truck is full of his fingerprints," Kohnlein said. "It has all kinds of fingerprints and other evidence all over it."

However, there is no way of knowing when those prints were made, he said.

"The only time he would have come into contact with the air bag is when it was deployed," Kohnlein said. "It's perfect."

Now the only question that remains is when and if TV's crime shows turn this case into their next "ripped from the headlines" plot device.